Internet Safety for Kids (20 Tips for Parents)

Maria has written for the Chicago Tribune, reported from the front lines in Afghanistan, and ran a business news bureau in China. Today, she specializes in emerging technology, including cybersecurity and virtual reality.

If you’re like me, and you use your kids as free tech support whenever you need to configure your wireless router or your TV to play funny cat videos, then it’s tempting to let the kids take care of their own online security as well.

That could be a big mistake.

While your kids might be experts at the technology, they’re not experts at evaluating risk.

You already know that, unless guided, it’s easy to manipulate children into smoking, drinking, speeding, bullying, and, of course, jumping off cliffs because all their friends are doing it.

Mistakes can cause a lot of damage. Everything from expensive ransomware infections, identity theft, loss of friendships to putting your child’s life at risk.

As in the off-line world, you need to provide guidance, set boundaries, and, depending on your child’s age and maturity level, put safeguards in place.

You also need to be aware of where the threats are coming from.

10 Things You Can Do Now to Protect Your Children Online

1. Make YouTube safe for your kids

YouTube is the new children’s TV.

It’s one of the most popular sites out there, but not all of those videos will be appropriate for your children.

But the site does have some safety features, and you should take advantage of them.

On the desktop site, if you scroll down to the bottom of the screen you’ll see a “Restricted Mode” setting. This hides videos flagged as containing inappropriate content.

In the mobile apps, click on the three dots at the top right and click on Settings > General and scroll down until you see the “Restricted Mode” option.

2. Help your kids set the privacy controls on their social media accounts

If your children share messages, pictures or videos on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, they might not be aware of who can see their posts.

Most apps do have privacy settings though that let your children control who they let into their lives.

Here are the links to information about the privacy settings on the most popular apps:

VPN (another option)

4. Set up separate accounts for your kids on your computers

If you share a device with your children consider setting up a separate account or accounts. Each account will have its own home screen and, depending on the device and platform, a different selection of features, apps, and permissions.

This helps you to protect your own data or video recommendations. It also allows you to set up customized security and privacy settings for each child.

On Windows computers, you can set up a new user account for your children. Go to Settings > Accounts > Add a family member > Add a child.

5. Set up separate accounts for your kids on your mobile devices

Tablets and smartphones also allow multiple user accounts on the same device.

On Android tablets, you can create a restricted account for your child, with limits on which apps they can use.

On Android phones, you can create a new user account for your child. But the only account restriction currently available is to turn off the ability to make phone calls and send text messages.

That said, you can restrict their Google Play account. Go to Settings > Parental controls and turn them on. You’ll be able to set specific content restrictions on apps and games, movies, TV, books, and music.

On the Apple side, iPhones and iPads have controls for apps and features, content, and private settings. Launch the Settings app and go to General > Restrictions and tap on “Enable Restrictions.”

6. Secure your gaming systems

Don’t forget that your gaming console is also an Internet device these days. Children can download games and make in-game purchases, and even surf the Web.

Most devices have features that allow you to:

Restrict the kind of content your children can get

Limit their purchases and …

… restrict or turn off their Web browsing.

7. Consider using kid-safe browsers and search engines

For added control, you can install a kid-safe web browser for your children to use.

Zoodles, for example, offers a child-safe environment. There’s a free version for Windows PCs and Macs, and for Android and iOS tablets and smartphones. The premium version, which costs $8 a month, includes ad blocking, time limits, and other features.

Another alternative kid-safe browser is Maxthon, while the browsers you use now will have some built-in tools.

If you use the Chrome browser, you can set up a “supervised profile”. This will block explicit search results, show you what websites your children visited, and even restrict what websites they can go to. The restrictions work in two ways:

You can have a list of approved websites and your children can visit those sites only.

OR – you can pre-ban a list of websites and your children can visit any site aside from those on your banned list.

8. Lock in apps for the youngest children

If you want to let your child play with your phone in the back seat of the car without worrying about them messing it up or surfing the web for creepy content do this: open up an app for the child and then set it up so that they can’t exit the app.

On phones running Android 5 and higher, it’s called “screen pinning.”

First, go to Settings > Security > Screen pinning and turn it on and also enable “Ask for PIN before unpinning.”

Then load your app, hit the overview button – the little square on the bottom right – and swipe up until you see a pin icon come up in the lower right corner. Now your child will need your PIN in order to switch apps.

On iPhones and iPads, this is called “Guided Access.”

First, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access to set up Guided Access. Then, when you’re in the app you want to lock in, triple-click the home button to bring up the Guided Access settings. You can turn off Guided Access either with a PIN or by setting it up to work with your Touch ID through Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access > Passcode Settings.

9. Use an app that limits the time your child spends online

According to the Pew Research Institute, 50 percent of parents have used parental control tools to block, monitor, or filter their child’s online activities.

The ScreenTime app is available for Apple, Android and Amazon devices. The app is free for one child, and includes the ability to monitor the device remotely and to see your child’s web and search history. A $4-per-month premium version adds daily time limits, ability to block apps, and block the use of the device during school hours or after bedtime.

There are also some James Bond-type apps out there. These will let you track your child’s location, read their emails and text messages, and spy on their Snapchats and other communications.

Be careful with these. Do you want to lose your child’s trust? Ask yourself if you want to engage in a cyberwar with a teenager that could escalate to them using anti-spyware applications and burner phones.

10. Make sure your kids are only using safe chat rooms

Some kid-friendly platforms offer chat rooms where kids can talk to other kids. Vet the sites first to make sure that someone monitors the chat rooms.

And teach your kids not to share their real identities on such platforms but to use anonymous screen names instead.

Teach, Educate and Talk with Your Children

11. Teach your children not to respond to messages from strangers

If they get a text message, instant message, email or social media message from someone they don’t know then they must delete it at once.

Make sure they know not to open it, not to respond to it, and, of course, not to click on any links or attachments.

If those girls from Pretty Little Liars followed that advice, the show would have been over after one episode.

12. Educate your children about the risks of “sexting”

Last year, in a report to the U.S. Congress, the Justice Department revealed that the biggest growing threat to children is something called “sextortion.”

It’s bad enough when minors send nude images of themselves to boyfriends or girlfriends, and those images then get distributed to others.

Besides the psychological damage, children who both send and receive the “sexts” are breaking the law. Something that could result in prosecution and even registration as a sex offender.

And it gets worse.

According to the FBI, the “sextortionists” have gone pro, with individual criminals targeting hundreds of children each. They pretend to be the same age as their victims. They then trick or coerce them into producing child pornography for them. They even get them to recruit friends and siblings.

In a review of forty-three such cases, the FBI found that two victims committed suicide, and ten others attempted to kill themselves. Victims also have their grades decline, drop out of school, get depressed, and engage in cutting and other types of self harm.

The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children say that reports of sextortion were up 150 percent during the first several months of 2016. This was in comparison to the same time period in 2014.

In 4 percent of the sextortion reports, the children engaged in self-harm, threatened suicide or attempted suicide as a result of the victimization, the Centre said.

13. Warn your kids about file sharing

Uploading illegal files is of course – illegal!

And so is downloading – though fewer media companies seem to be prosecuting kids these days. Though downloading illegal files also carries other risks, such as viruses.

Fortunately, there are now many free and low-cost services out there where kids and teens can get videos and music.

14. Warn your kids about online polls and surveys

There are lots of fun, harmless polls out there, like the one that tells you what kind of poodle you are. But many ask for too much personal information, and could land your kids on spammers’ email lists, or open them up to identity theft.

Many adults have a separate email account for when they need to provide an email address to register for something. If your child has a legitimate reason to fill in questionnaires needing an email address, consider helping them set up a second email account of their own.

15. Warn your kids about getting too close to strangers

When you’re meeting someone for the first time after, say, communicating with them via an online dating app, you know to set the meeting in a public location, such as a coffee house, and to let friends know where you are.

This is common sense.

But children and teenagers often lack that basic common sense – or might be tricked into keeping their online relationships secret.

Of course, predators can also communicate with potential targets via traditional mail, or meet them at bus stops. But the Internet allows them to scale up their activities big time.

Attackers can use online relationships to lure children to meet them in person. Or, more often, they will try to trick children into making unnecessary purchases, or into sharing information, photos, or videos.

Know your children’s online friends. And, as with off-line friends, confirm their identities, and talk to those kids’ parents. Be sure that those “kids” are, in fact, kids.

16. Help your children deal with cyberbullying

And the rates are even higher for children who are overweight, disabled, or LGBT, or members of a minority group.

Victims have physical problems such as sleeping, upset stomachs, and headaches along with psychological effects, such as depression, anxiety, and alcohol and drug use.

Let your kids know that they can turn to you for help, and find out what resources are available from your local schools.

You should save messages and other evidence of the cyberbullying. Report the bully to the social media platform concerned in the first instance. Then to the telephone or Internet service provider as well as to the school, or local law enforcement authorities. And block the bully from your child’s social media, telephone, or email accounts.

17. Set a good example

How many baby pictures and vacation photos have you posted online? Before lecturing your kids about staying safe, make sure that you yourself are a good model. Learn about the privacy settings in the social media apps you use most, then check that you aren’t sharing private, personal moments with the whole Internet.

And don’t drive while texting or talking on the phone. Wait until we all have those self-driving cars we’ve been promised and do your texting then.

18. Set rules about what your kids can share online

As an adult, you know to be careful about what information you post online. You know not to share your financial information or social security numbers with strangers.

Make sure your kids know the rules and understand the reasons behind them. Even seemingly innocuous information, like vacation pictures, can let criminals know when your house is empty.

Some information, like a funny picture of your cat in the snow, is safe to share with everyone. Other stuff, like vacation plans, is fine to share with family and close friends. And some things are best not shared online at all.

The recommended age for children to have their own social media accounts is 13.

You’ll be able to see if they’re posting inappropriate things online and can step in before problems escalate.

It’s not foolproof. There are ways that children can keep their communications hidden from you. And if you’re too heavy-handed in your monitoring, it may cause your children to be more secretive.

20. Set limits on how much time your children can spend online

According to a recent national survey, tweens spend an average of six hours a day with their devices, and that’s not including the time spent on school or homework. And teens spend an amazing nine hours a day staring at their screens..

Sure, some of that is listening to Spotify while exercising. But the bulk of the time is spent watching videos, playing games, and using social media.

The American Academy of Paediatrics used to recommend that children under two should have no screen time at all, with conservative limits regarding screen time for older children. In late 2016, the organization re-evaluated current research and loosened its recommendations. They now suggest that some screen time, video chats with relatives and educational applications for instance, can be valuable for even the youngest children.